Babri case lawyers, judge in terror hitlist of IM,SIMI

Bhopal, Jun 10: There's a distressing new revelation by the Madhya Pradesh anti-terror squad chief. He has disclosed that two judges from the Allahabad High Court is on the terror hitlist who gave the verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case on Sept 2010.

The information was obtained following the arrest of ten Indian Mujahideen and Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) men last week in Ratlam, Jabalpur and Bhopal. The literature and photos seized from them revealed the plot. Also in the hitlist is the publisher of a Delhi-based comic for carrying derogatory pictures of Prophet Mohammed.

According to the Madhya Pradesh DGP SK Rout, those arrested include Sheikh Mujib of Gujarat, Mehboob of Khandwa in MP and Abu Faizal from Mumbai who are accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts. Another eight people were arrested from a house in Raza Chowk area of Jabalpur. The inspector general of ATS, Vipin Maheshwari has been quoted as saying, “These men were holding meetings with the aim of avenging the verdict given by the judges on the Ayodhya."

Further interrogations revealed that Abu Faizal, a Mumbai-based Unani doctor Abu Faizal had apparently sent Sheikh Mujib and his associate Aslam to go to Lucknow to check out the movements of the a judge and lawyers representing Hindi organisations. According to the police, both Mujib and Aslam carried Rs 1 lakh with them and later rented a room for the purpose.

A VHP leader from Ujjain, Bherulal Tank is also believed to be one of the targets. Tank was close to Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the Malegaon blast and deceased Sunil Joshi, who was the alleged mastermind of the Ajmer blast.